Conventionally, a connector ensures connection between a board provided in an electronic device such as a notebook computer and an electronic component attachable and detachable to and from the board. The general type of the attachable/detachable electronic component is a storage device such as an Optical Disc Drive (ODD) or a Hard Disc Drive (HDD). A housing of such a connector includes one end portion located in the storage device and a rear end portion located in the board. One end and rear end portions are integrally formed with each other. Then, a signal pin housed in the housing is secured within the housing by plastic molding.
The signal pin is inserted and soldered on the board, and the rear end portion is secured by screws, thereby attaching such a connector on the board. The board might vibrate. The vibration of the board is caused by the use of a speaker installed within the electronic device or by the falling of the electronic device. The vibration of the board is transmitted to the storage device through the connector.
The ODD and HDD each includes: a rotational mechanism for rotating a disk (storage medium) storing data; and a head accessing the rotating disk. The vibration transmitted from the board to the ODD or HDD causes the head to vibrate. Further, the vibration transmitted from the board to the ODD or HDD might cause a contact failure between a terminal of the connector and a terminal of the ODD or HDD. The vibration of the head or the contact failure between these terminals might cause an error in reading or writing data.
There are known a following connector which absorbs the transmission of the vibration from a chassis to the HDD via the connector at the time the dropping impact is applied to the chassis of the notebook computer. For example, there is a connector including an elastic member supporting a first connector portion on a second connector portion with the first and second connector portions separated from each other. In such an example of the connector, an upper connector is used as the first connector portion, and a lower connector is used as the second connector portion. Additionally, an electrical connecting pin is used as the elastic member. This electrical connecting pin is made of a metallic material having a plate shape. The plate-shaped metallic material configured as the electrical connecting pin includes a bending portion bent in the thickness direction thereof, and the bending portion functions as an elastically deformable portion (see Japanese Unexamined Patent application publication No. 2004-71356).
Further, there is known an electrical connector including a plastic member, as the conventional technique. For example, there is known an electrical connector where a viscoelastic member with plastic properties is arranged at a clearance defined between a connector housing and a fixing frame supporting the connector housing (see Japanese Unexamined utility model application publication No. 5-31158).
The vibration of the board provided in the electronic device might be caused by various reasons. For example, in the notebook computer as an example of the electronic device, its chassis houses a speaker. The use of this speaker might cause the vibration of the board. The vibration caused by the use of the speaker might include the rightward, leftward, forward, and rearward components, in addition to the upward and downward components. In such a way, the vibration occurring on the board might include the component other than the upward and downward components.
Correspondingly, it is conceivably difficult for the connector including the elastic member supporting the first connector portion on the second connector portion to effectively absorb and attenuate the impact or vibration in a direction other than the upward and downward directions. As mentioned above, the bending portion bent in the thickness direction is formed in the plate-shaped metallic material embodied as the electrical connecting pin corresponding to the elastic member. The elastic member with such a shape has the primary purpose of absorbing and restricting of the impact and the vibration in the upward and downward directions.
For this reason, in a case where the conventional connector as mentioned above is employed, the rightward, leftward, forward and rearward vibrations might be transmitted to the ODD or HDD. Further, the vibration is transmitted to the ODD or HDD, so that the contact failure might be caused in a terminal of the ODD or HDD. This might result in an error in reading or writing data.
Furthermore, the electrical connector, where the viscoelastic member with plastic properties is arranged the clearance defined between the connector housing and the fixing frame supporting the connector housing, has the purpose of facilitating the fitting operation of the connector. This electrical connector has a self-correcting mechanism of the fitting angle between the female and male connectors connected. That is, it is not assumed that this electrical connector absorbs the vibration of the board.
Moreover, this electrical connector is supposed to be attached to an end of a harness. That is, it is not assumed that the signal pin is directly inserted into the board and is then soldered. It is difficult for this connector to correspond to be applicable to the conformation in which the signal pin are directly inserted into the board